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Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Campaign Posters

 Collection
Identifier: M636

Scope and Contents

The content of the collection contains two campaign posters from the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). The text at the top of both posters reads, “Freedoms Means” and the smaller text on the bottom of the posters reads, “Lyndon Johnson-President, Hubert Humphrey- Vice President, Aaron Henry- Senate, Fannie Lou Hamer-Congress 2nd Dist., Annie Devine- Congress 4th. Dist., Victoria Gray-Congress 5th Dist., Freedom vote Oct. 31-Nov. 2, Regular Election Nov. 3.” On the bottom of one poster, the text reads “Vote for Aaron Henry”, and the bottom of the other poster reads, “Vote for Fannie Lou Hamer.”

Dates

  • 1964

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Noncirculating; available for research.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection may be protected from unauthorized copying by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code).

Biographical / Historical

The summer of 1964 in Mississippi was an important moment in civil rights history, not only was the Freedom Summer Project underway, but this was also when the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) was founded. The MFDP was led by civil rights activists Fannie Lou Hamer, Victoria Gray Adams, Bob Moses, and Lawrence Guyot to name a few, and this was a grassroots political party. The purpose of the MFDP was to challenge the all-white Democratic Party that dominated politics in Mississippi and upheld the system of white supremacy. The MFDP had hoped that if African Americans could gain seats within the Democratic Party then they would be able to institute policy changes while also ensuring African Americans were represented in the political sphere for which they were disenfranchised. However, in August of 1964 at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey the MFDP failed to gain enough seats within the party. At the risk of losing support of the southern white delegates, Lyndon B. Johnson offered little support to MFDP party leaders and offered Hubert Humphrey the position of Vice President if he assisted in preventing MFDP from being seated at the convention. Therefore, MFDP was only offered two seats within the Democratic Party and they were offered to Aaron Henry and Rev. Ed King. The party was not given a choice as to who would represent them, instead members of the Democratic Party outside of MFDP chose who would represent the party, and all the other members would be considered “honored guests” and they would have no voting capabilities. Ultimately, having been left out of the discussion on who would represent them, MFDP rejected the two-seat compromise. Even though the party did not gain political recognition, that did not stop many of its leaders from running for public office. As indicated by the campaign posters in this collection Aaron Henry, Fannie Lou Hamer, Annie Devine and Victoria Gray launched political campaigns for public office in the fall of 1964.

Extent

2 Items (posters) : MC2/D19 ; 10.5" x 16.25"

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Two campaign posters from the newly formed Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in the order in which it was received.

Provenance

Donated by Dick Simpson. Received on February 23, 2017.

Related Materials

Related collections found at the University of Southern Mississippi:

M351 Herbert Randall Freedom Summer Collection

M320 Zoya Zeman Freedom Summer Collection

M383 Mamie Lee Phillips Civil Rights Memoir

M406 Civil Rights in the South Collection

M537 Richard Beymer Freedom Summer Collection

M565 David Batzka Civil Rights Collection

Sources

• Case File

• Contents of the collection

• https://www.crmvet.org/info/mfdp_atlantic.pdf

• Dittmer, John. Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,1995).

Title
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Campaign Posters
Status
Completed
Author
Collection processed and finding aid written by Amanda Abulawi
Date
July 2, 2020
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Historical Manuscripts and Photographs Repository

Contact:
118 College Drive - 5148
Hattiesburg MS 39406-0001
601.266.4345